The legendary rock known as Fandens fingre (The Devil’s Fingers) in Roskilde is marked by deep, naturally formed grooves from the Ice Age that extend over and down its other side. Measuring 3.3 × 2.6 × 3.3 feet (1 × 0.8 × 1 meter), this reddish, uneven gneiss with numerous indent … | Continue reading
Writer’s houses have long attracted passionate fans. While sites like Ernest Hemingway’s cat-filled Key West home and Edith Wharton’s Berkshires estate, The Mount, are often billed as places of historical and architectural interest, literary house tours are also sites of fan tour … | Continue reading
The Radio Optical Observatory ROT54 is the centerpiece of an abandoned complex that sprawls across an entire hillside, offering a fascinating glimpse into industrial archaeology amidst lush natural surroundings. Once a cutting-edge scientific research facility, this site now host … | Continue reading
This burial ground-turned-public park located in a former industrial area of Newcastle has a fascinating history. Until the development of water-based ballast systems on ships, some ports needed to dispose of large volumes of materials used as ballast on unladen ships. The volume … | Continue reading
This article is adapted from the September 21, 2024, edition of Gastro Obscura’s Favorite Things newsletter. You can sign up here. Last weekend, I found myself walking along a shaded trail in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. A breeze blew from the Susquehanna River through the teardrop-s … | Continue reading
The Lighthouse of Alexandria on Pharos Island was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world built. It suffered damage through a series of earthquakes during the subsequent centuries and ultimately destroyed in the 1300's by an earthquake. In 1477, Sultan Al-Ashraf Sayf al-Din … | Continue reading
Solvitur ambulando is a Latin phrase often attributed to the Greek philosopher Diogenes and it translates to “It is solved by walking.” Around the perimeter of McLaren Park, San Francisco’s second largest—after the more famous Golden Gate Park—is a meandering 2.7-mile path design … | Continue reading
The Tokyo Olympics of 1964 brought about many developments and improvements across the country. In the Noge district of Yokohama, in particular, it left behind a unique street quite unlike any other. The Noge-Miyakobashi Shōtengai, also known as Harmonica Alley, is made up of a s … | Continue reading
Listen and subscribe on Stitcher, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and all major podcast apps. In this episode of The Atlas Obscura Podcast, host Dylan Thuras takes his turn at the mic during the National Storytelling Festival. Every October, amateurs and professionals alike gather in th … | Continue reading
This article is from Hakai Magazine, an online publication about science and society in coastal ecosystems. Read more stories like this at hakaimagazine.com. Aboard the Alkor, a 55-meter oceanographic vessel anchored in the Baltic Sea several kilometers from the German port city … | Continue reading
Of the many thousands of ships that have been lost off the notorious Cape Fear Coast, there is one that has resurfaced and can be visited again today in the middle of a seemingly random street in Oak Island, North Carolina. The 138 foot long Mary E. Morris was built in 1884 and s … | Continue reading
No U.S. city quite does “Oddtober” with as much ghoulish soul as Ypsilanti, Michigan does. Just 10 miles away from Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan campus, Ypsilanti (affectionately called “Ypsi” for short) has been celebrating a delightful renaissance of spook and circum … | Continue reading
“We have, especially in the Western world, come to understand ourselves as our brains,” says historian Elsa Richardson. While the brain is viewed as the seat of the mind, the stomach is often relegated to the status of a mere “workaday organ,” Richardson adds, with a purely physi … | Continue reading
In the late 19th century, the British were expanding their empire into Africa. As they moved into modern-day Ghana, and anxious about French and German influence over the area, they offered to extend a protectorate over the Ashanti people. The Ashanti King (Asantehene) Prempeh I, … | Continue reading
The necropolis is a complex of several domus de janas ("fairy houses"), a series of Neolithic tombs dug inside rock. The crown jewel of the site is the main one. Formerly a tomb complex, it was then re-used in Roman times, with modifications, and then as a Church until the middle … | Continue reading
In Forres, just east of the center of town, a rather large boulder sits at the base of Cluny Hill. This rock is wedged into a wall and rests in front of the municipal Police Station. On it is a sign that reads: "From Cluny Hill witches were rolled in stout barrels through which s … | Continue reading
Not far from the salty breeze of the Maine coastline, there's a curious sight that's been drawing the attention of both locals and travelers alike. It's known affectionately as "The Old Man of Shore Road." This isn't your average roadside attraction—it's a natural wonder that pla … | Continue reading
In Bend, Oregon, you can find the ruins of Tumalo Dam, an early 20th-century irrigation project that never actually managed to hold water. Irrigation projects, under the rubric of "reclamation," were all the rage during the late 19th and early 20th centuries in the Western United … | Continue reading
St. Nick's Nature Reserve and Community Center lies just under a mile from one of York's popular visitor attractions, The JORVIK Viking Centre. The area which was once a dumping ground for household wastes, but is now a popular walking area in a reclaimed wooden wildlife habitat. … | Continue reading
Charles Rennie Mackintosh and his wife Margaret Macdonald were both members of The Four, a quartet from Glasgow that included Margaret's sister Frances and her husband James Herbert MacNair. The Four met at the Glasgow School of Art when they studied there at the end of the 19th … | Continue reading
Estes Park has long been a popular place for tourists coming to visit Rocky Mountain National Park. Perched on a hill in the heart of downtown is an important site in the process that made this little mountain village the tourism juggernaut that it is today. In 1903, Denver Post … | Continue reading
In 1899, 790 Japanese immigrants boarded the Sakura-maru at the Port of Yokohama and set out for Lima, Peru. Ninety years after that journey across the Pacific Ocean, a statue of a girl called Sakura-chan was installed at the Japanese cultural center in Lima, commemorating the tr … | Continue reading
On the outskirts of the city of Hargeisa lies a decaying airplane, manufactured in Moscow in 1962. No longer in flying condition, it sits propped up on concrete pillars behind a wall topped with barbed wire. While the breakaway republic of Somaliland seems like a strange final re … | Continue reading
Are you planning to visit the city of Namur in Wallonia, Belgium, but not sure what to do? Try a scavenger hunt through the city center, trying to find all 40+ miniatures hidden in plain sight. The miniatures of Spanish artist Isaac Cordal, representing anonymous civil servants, … | Continue reading
At first glance, Nontron looks like a medieval town just like the many of its kind found in rural France: half-timbered houses, a 12th-century castle, quaint shops showcasing the local knife craft. However, if you venture through side streets in the historic district, you might b … | Continue reading
Wave goodbye to the sun-soaked beaches and melting popsicles of summer, and say hello to fall leaves and a chill in the air. Grab your blanket and cozy up with a cup of tea to read five stories sure to get you in the mood for fall, from the inside story on growing giant pumpkins … | Continue reading
The Great Tapestry of Scotland is an art project intended to represent the history and culture of the nation via a stitched tapestry. Inspired by historical precedents like the famous Bayeux Tapestry, artist Andrew Crummy decided to revive the storytelling and documentation mediu … | Continue reading
This cemetery contains the remains of 21,000 German soldiers who died during the Allied invasion in 1944. Unlike many cemeteries dedicated to those who died in battle, there are no statues glorifying the deeds of the fallen here. Even though what the Third Reich stood for was mor … | Continue reading
The tradition is centuries old—possibly the oldest of its kind anywhere—but the dress code for the St. Mary Redcliffe Pipe Walk is more about practicality than pomp. “Walking boots and outdoor clothes,” is the usual attire according to veteran pipe walker Bryan Anderson. Since th … | Continue reading
Situated in the heart of the village of Lavenham and constructed in 1529, this timber-framed building served as the meeting place for the Guild of Corpus Christi, a religious and social fraternity integral to the community's wool trade. The Guildhall's architecture, with its half … | Continue reading
Order palacsinta at any of Hungary’s grand cafés and you’ll receive crêpes neatly rolled around túró (farmer’s cheese) and lekvar (jam). Arranged like fat cigars with perhaps a sprinkle of nuts, the pancakes have an understated elegance verging on austere. But Jeremy Salamon, the … | Continue reading
Even though the original Tsukiji Market's wholesale and tuna operations moved to Toyosu Market in 2018, the shops and restaurants that once surrounded it remain. To this day, Tsukiji Outer Market, as this area is known, remains one of the best places in Tokyo for fresh seafood. A … | Continue reading
Hidden in plain sight above the main entrance of Krakow Old Town's UNESCO-listed Cloth Hall hangs a relic steeped in 14th-century intrigue and legend. This knife, prominently displayed for all who gaze upward, is more than just an ornament; it symbolizes a gruesome and fatal tale … | Continue reading
When the Michelin Guide decided to expand its star system outside of the traditional, white-cloth fine dining experiences it was most associated with, establishments in Asia were among the first to get other qualifications, like the Bib Gourmand. Started in 1997, this award recog … | Continue reading
Once a fortified residence, now a living history museum, El Rancho de Las Golondrinas (“Ranch of the Swallows”) offers hands-on insights into life during New Mexico’s Spanish, Mexican, and Territory periods. Here, in a rural farming valley just south of Santa Fe, the historic 18t … | Continue reading
On a train ride from Santa Fe to Lamy, you can take in opera, burlesque, or indigenous hoop dancing, be serenaded by local performers, or even become part of a murder mystery. It all depends on which carriage you board. The Sky Railway offers exciting, all-encompassing short-line … | Continue reading
A fitting tribute to what made this area great sits in Centenary Riverside, a beautiful oasis in the heart of industrial Doncaster. Steel Henge sits on part of the site that was once the Templeborough steelworks. This tranquil spot now is part of Rotherham's flood alleviation sch … | Continue reading
The Paris suburb of Noisy-le-Grand is known for its architecturally unique environment, most notably home to the Espaces d'Abraxas. Similar in concept but much different in style, the Arènes de Picasso or "Picasso's Arenas" is a massive housing complex consisting of 540 residence … | Continue reading
Jagged mountains set against majestic blue skies. Ocean waves crashing against a rocky shoreline. The soft hum of wildlife, a signal of another world existing alongside our own—one full of just as much life. There are a lot of these kinds of spaces in Los Cabos, and few are more … | Continue reading
The building that now houses the Museo de Historia Natural began its life as a school. Called the Artículo 123 Naciones Unidas, this was the town’s first primary school and was established by educator Amelia Wilkes in 1951. Not only did Wilkes serve as the school’s director, she … | Continue reading
Todos Santos sits between the mountains and the sea. A small town known for its vibrant art communities, its ever-growing culinary scene, its surfing, and a spot called the Hotel California, which draws in fans of classic rock and mid-century architecture in equal measure. While … | Continue reading
Sierra la Laguna holds a lot of treasures within its 277,835 acres. It contains over 150 species of birds, including some that are only found on the Baja peninsula. It is a vital part of the region’s water supply, providing around 90 percent of the population of La Paz and Los Ca … | Continue reading
On the outskirts of Paris is an oasis of dreamlike towers. Located west of the city, Nanterre is home to some of the tallest buildings in the metropolitan area, including the group of skyscrapers known as the Tours Aillaud. Overlapping cylindrical towers come together to form a r … | Continue reading
Located on the easternmost edge of Interstate 84, Sturbridge is a relatively small town that serves as a stop for many travelers heading southwest toward Connecticut, New York, and Pennsylvania. Gas stations, hotels, and restaurants are found in abundance here, but Sturbridge als … | Continue reading
Tucked partway up a mountain in Daxi District, on the fringes of Taoyuan City, Taiwan, the final resting place of Chiang Kai-shek remains a destination for both curious visitors and devotees of the longtime dictator. After Chiang Kai-shek retreated to Taiwan from the communist ad … | Continue reading
Built between 1242 and 1266 (and renovated in the 18th century), the humble-looking Stone Gate is the last of the historic gates that once guarded Zagreb. It may not be the city’s top tourist attractions, but inside it is a storied shrine visited by locals every day. The shrine, … | Continue reading
Imagine stepping into a time machine, but instead of landing in ancient Rome or the age of dinosaurs, you find yourself in the former East Germany, surrounded by clunky computers and gadgets that look like they were designed by someone who thought "minimalism" meant "as few butto … | Continue reading
Tucked away in the picturesque village of Haworth, West Yorkshire, the Brontë Parsonage Museum offers a fascinating glimpse into the lives of the Brontë family. Established as a museum in 1928, it's a pilgrimage spot for fans of the genius of Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Brontë, wh … | Continue reading